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Commentary By Robert VerBruggen

For Women, the Racial Gap in Economic Mobility Is Driven by … Men

Culture Culture & Society

Romantic partnerships have many benefits, but one is especially straightforward: Two people tend to make more money than one. A recent study from Census Bureau researchers breaks down how these benefits differ across racial groups, with a focus on what white and black women gain from marriage and cohabitation—and how this income contributes to economic mobility.

By combining IRS tax-return data with the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, the authors can match individuals’ childhood family incomes with their later romantic pairings and earnings. Because men tend to be older than their partners, the researchers use a sample of men born between 1976 and 1983 and women born between 1982 and 1986, and they focus on marriages and cohabitations from when the men were ages 31-35 and the women were ages 28-32.1

Their key statistic is called the “Expected Income from Partner” (EIFP): If a woman grew up with a certain family income, and is from a certain racial group, how much income can she expect, on average, to gain from a romantic partner?

Continue reading the entire piece here at the Institute for Family Studies

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Robert VerBruggen is a fellow at the Manhattan Institute. Follow him on Twitter here.

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